US House Passes the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act by Voice Vote

The US House of Representatives has passed H.R. 979, the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act, sending to the Senate a bill that would direct the Department of Transportation to require AM radio capability as standard equipment in every new passenger vehicle sold in the United States — and to require it at no separate or additional charge to the driver.

The vote came in mid-September 2026, taken by voice under suspension of the rules. That procedural route is reserved for measures expected to pass comfortably, and there is no recorded tally of yeas and nays to report. What the bill did carry was an unusually large roster of backers: 317 cosponsors, drawn from both parties, in a chamber of 435 members.

What the bill actually does

H.R. 979 was introduced by Reps. Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) and Frank Pallone Jr. (D-NJ). Its mechanism is a directive to the Department of Transportation rather than a self-executing technical rule: DOT would be required to mandate AM broadcast reception in new passenger vehicles, and manufacturers could not treat that capability as a paid option or a trim-level upgrade.

The "no additional charge" clause is the part most likely to matter in practice. Several of the vehicles at the centre of this argument still offer AM content through streaming apps or subscription services; the bill's framing is that over-the-air AM reception should be present in the dashboard as a baseline function, not something routed through a data connection or a paywall.

The sources describe the scope as new passenger vehicles. They do not extend the requirement to trucks, commercial fleets or any specific class of import, and no compliance deadline, model year or cost estimate appears in any of them.

A long committee run-up

The floor vote was not a surprise arrival. The House Energy and Commerce Committee advanced the measure a full year earlier, in September 2025, by 50-1 — a margin that told anyone watching that the bill's eventual fate would be decided by floor time rather than by opposition.

The argument its sponsors have made throughout is about emergency communications rather than audio quality. Rep. Pallone has warned that removing AM from cars could limit public access to emergency information and alerts. The Speaker's office, announcing passage, made the same case in regional terms, noting that when disaster strikes — "especially in hurricane and tornado-prone states like Louisiana" — local communities rely on AM radio to deliver accurate, up-to-date information and critical safety alerts.

That framing reflects AM's structural advantages as a distribution medium. Long-wavelength AM signals travel far, penetrate terrain and buildings, and reach a receiver that needs no cellular network, no broadband backhaul and no subscription. In a regional power or network outage, the AM transmitter and the car radio are a chain with very few links in it.

Why automakers started dropping it

The bill exists because AM has been quietly disappearing from new dashboards, and specifically from electric ones. Hoodline reports that eight manufacturers — BMW, Ford, Mazda, Polestar, Rivian, Tesla, Volkswagen and Volvo — have removed AM reception from electric models. Tesla has cited electromagnetic interference; Volvo has pointed to electromagnetic compatibility issues.

The engineering complaint is real and well understood. An EV powertrain is a dense cluster of high-current switching: inverters, DC-DC converters, motor drives and fast-charging hardware all generate broadband electrical noise, and a meaningful share of that noise lands in or near the AM band. Suppressing it to the point where an AM tuner delivers clean reception means shielding, filtering and layout work that adds cost, mass and development time. Removing the tuner removes the problem. It also removes the service.

None of the sources record any automaker responding to the House vote, and none has reversed a decision in light of it. The industry's stated position, as reported, remains the interference argument.

What happens next

The bill now moves to the Senate, where the ground has already been prepared — and then left alone. A companion measure, S. 315, cleared the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee in April 2025 and has sat on the Legislative Calendar under General Orders ever since. MediaLogic Radio reports that S. 315 carries more than 60 bipartisan cosponsors, which is well past the 60-vote threshold that governs most Senate floor business.

That combination — committee-approved, broadly cosponsored, and stalled for well over a year — is a reminder that support and scheduling are different currencies in the Senate. Nothing in the current sourcing indicates that a floor vote has been scheduled, and the bill has passed one chamber only. It is not law, and the Department of Transportation has no obligation under it unless and until the Senate acts and the measure is signed.

Why hi-fi readers should care

AM is not a high-fidelity format and nobody is pretending otherwise. Its bandwidth is narrow, its noise floor is at the mercy of the local electrical environment, and the music programming that once justified it has long since migrated elsewhere. The case being made in Washington is not about sound quality — it is about a receiver that works when other infrastructure does not.

For anyone following in-car audio, though, the underlying story is about electromagnetic hygiene inside a vehicle, and that is a subject the hi-fi world knows intimately. The same switching noise that makes AM reception difficult in an EV is the noise that DC-DC converters, class-D amplifier stages and USB power supplies have been fighting in domestic systems for years. A legislative mandate would, in effect, force the automotive industry to solve an interference problem it has so far been able to sidestep by deleting the affected input. Whether the Senate ever puts it to that test is now the open question.

Frequently asked questions

What does the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act require?

The AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act, H.R. 979, directs the US Department of Transportation to require AM radio capability as standard equipment in all new passenger vehicles, and to ensure it is provided at no separate or additional charge to the driver. The sources give no compliance deadline, model year or cost estimate.

How did the US House vote on the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act?

The US House passed H.R. 979 in mid-September 2026 by voice vote under suspension of the rules, so there is no recorded tally of yeas and nays. The bill had 317 cosponsors and had earlier been advanced by the House Energy and Commerce Committee in September 2025 by a margin of 50-1.

Which automakers have removed AM radio from their electric vehicles?

Hoodline reports that eight manufacturers have removed AM reception from electric models: BMW, Ford, Mazda, Polestar, Rivian, Tesla, Volkswagen and Volvo. Tesla has cited electromagnetic interference as the reason, while Volvo has pointed to electromagnetic compatibility issues arising from electric powertrain hardware.

What happens to the AM radio bill next in the Senate?

H.R. 979 now moves to the US Senate, where a companion measure, S. 315, cleared the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee in April 2025 and has remained on the Legislative Calendar under General Orders since. MediaLogic Radio reports S. 315 has more than 60 bipartisan cosponsors. No floor vote has been scheduled.

Why do supporters say AM radio should stay in new cars?

Supporters of the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act argue the format is an emergency communications channel. Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. has warned that removing AM could limit public access to emergency information and alerts, and the Speaker's office cited communities in hurricane and tornado-prone states relying on AM for safety alerts.

This article was written by an AI system from Into The HiFi AI Desk, generated from the following sources, with no human editing pass before publication: audioXpress — House Passage Revives the Fight to Keep AM Radio in Every New Vehicle, Office of the Speaker of the House — House Passes AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act, MediaLogic Radio — U.S. House passes legislation to keep AM radio in vehicles, Hoodline — House Passes Bill Forcing AM Radio Into Every New Car, Sends It To Senate, H.R. 979, 119th Congress — AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act of 2025 (bill record).